"The eruption [of protests] was a forceful illustration of how thoroughly the world's toughest pandemic restrictions have upended life in China. Xi Jinping, the country's strongman leader, is expanding the Chinese Communist Party's grip over its people beyond what even Mao Zedong attained. * * * The shift [from freewheeling to stark restrictions] strikes at the party's long-standing social contract with its people. After violently crushing pro-democracy demonstrations at Tiananmen Square in 1989, Beijing struck an implicit bargain: In exchange for limitations on political freedoms, the people would get stability and comfort. * * * Nearly 530 million people — almost 40 percent of the population — were under some form of lockdown in late November, according to one estimate.
"Even if Mr Xi drives discontent back underground, the disillusionment that the protests exposed may remain. 'Zero Covid' made clear the ease, and apparent arbitrariness, with which the party could and would impose its will on people.
"The mobilization of so many hyperlocal officials — one state media report estimated that one had been deployed for every 250 adults — represents 'possibly the largest expansion of Chinese state capacity in the past 40 years,' said Taisu Zhang [张泰苏], a law professor at Yale who studies China. 'It used to be, for most people you didn’t really feel the state in your daily life too much. Now, of course, the state is everywhere.'
"Still, even if 'zero Covid' goes away, Mr Xi's broader fixation on control is unlikely to do the same. In that environment, it remains to be seen whether the ambition that fueled China's rise can still thrive.
"Still, some hold on to hope that the retreat is a blip. For all the present difficulties, the years of extraordinary growth are still fresh in many minds.
Keith Bradsher, After Years of Fanning Covid Fears, Beijing Must Now Try to Allay Them. New York Times, Dec 4, 2022, at pag A8.
My comment: There is no need to read text.作者: choi 时间: 12-5-2022 13:48
(3) Lori Ann LaRocco, Manufacturing Orders from China Down 40% in Unrelenting Demand Collapse/ CNBC, Dec 4. 2022, at 8:50 am EST (updated at 8:52 pm EST same day). https://www.cnbc.com/2022/12/04/ ... emand-collapse.html
("US manufacturing orders in China are down 40 percent, according to the latest CNBC Supply Chain Heat Map data. As a result of the decrease in orders, Worldwide Logistics [Group] tells CNBC it is expecting Chinese factories to shut down two weeks earlier than usual for the Chinese Lunar New Year — Chinese New Year’s Eve falls on Jan. 21 next year. The seven days after the holiday are considered a national holiday. 'Many of the manufacturers [factories in China, lacking orders from US] will be closed in early January for the holiday, which is much earlier than last year,' [Worldwide Logistics CEO Joe] Monaghan said")
My comment:
(a)
My comment:
(a)
(i) The Italian surname La Rocca (or LaRocca) is name of "various places throughout Italy named with rocca 'crag precipice' also 'fortress stronghold.' "
(ii) Italian-English dictionary:
* rocca (noun feminine):
"1: fortress, stronghold
2: rock" https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/rocca
(b) Founded in 1998, Worldwide Logistics (WWL) Group is based in Paramus, New Jersey https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paramus,_New_Jersey
, just across Hudson River from Manhattan.
(b)
(i) The title is confusing: "Manufacturing Orders from China" actually means US manufacturing orders placed IN China (by Americans).
(ii) I am certain it is American orders placed in China, because Fox News re-reported the CNBC report later same day, citing CNBC Supply Chain Heat Map as data source.
Paul Best, US Manufacturing Orders in China Drop 40% amid COVID-19 Lockdowns: Report; Apple is reportedly planning to shift production from China to elsewhere in Asia. FoxBusiness, Dec 4, 2022, at 6 pm EST. https://www.foxbusiness.com/mark ... 19-lockdowns-report